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The eyes that follow the PGA Tour move 450 miles north this week to enjoy the BMW Championship. It is the penultimate tournament of the season and is played in an atmosphere full of history.
The BMW Championship is played at Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois. It is a facility founded in 1915 that has hosted several top-level tournaments. It has two courses, North and South, the first one being the most important.
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There is a consensus among specialists that the North Course of the Olympia Fields Country Club is among the best 50 in the country. It is a 7,343-yard, par 70 course, and was designed by Bendelow, Thomas M.; Nimmons, George Croll, et al.
The course has hosted four men's and one women's major tournaments. They are the U.S. Opens (1928, 2003) the PGA Championships (1925, 1961) and the KPMG Women's PGA Championship (2017).
It has also hosted the 1997 U.S. Senior Open and the 2015 U.S. Amateur Open. Likewise, five editions of the Western Open and the 2020 edition of the BMW Championship were played there.
The North Course of the Olympia Fields Country Club has seen players with an enormous history in golf. Names such as Walter Hagen, Lee Trevino, Tiger Woods, Danielle Kang and Brooke Henderson have played there.
The Olympia Fields Country Club has had such a cultural impact that the community in which it is nestled grew and developed from the rise of this facility. Naturally, the golfing atmosphere is everywhere in the village of Olympia Field.
BMW Championship: A bit of history
The Western Open was the forerunner of the BMW Championship. The tournament had its inaugural edition in 1899 and remained under its original name until 2006. At the time of its name change and other characteristics, it was the third oldest tournament still played on the PGA Tour (after The Open and the US Open).
Throughout its history, the most important players in world golf played in the Western Open and its follow-up, the BMW Championship. The greatest winner of the Western Open was none other than the legendary Walter Hagen, with five titles.
Four times won there Billy Casper and Willy Anderson, while three titles were won by Jim Barnes, Macdonald Smith, Ralph Guldahl, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods. Several other illustrious golfers won the Western Open, including legends Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus (two times each).
The tournament records (both aggregate and to par) are shared by Tiger Woods and Scott Hoch, as both scored 21-under 267 (2003 and 2001, respectively). Both editions were played at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Illinois.
In 2007, the tournament adopted its current name and the invitational format to become part of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Since then, three players have won it twice: Patrick Cantlay, Dustin Johnson and Tiger Woods (who ties Walter Hagen's record if the victories of the Western Open are added to those of the BMW Championship).
